The difference is in implementation. Link prefetching was already supported in Chrome (and Firefox), which fetches the page in the background and stores the results in cache. Chrome 13 goes a step farther, actually prerendering the page in the background if requested (including running Javascript).

Not the same thing - you have groups of friends at each individual school, and you have friends in other colleges who had likely already been invited to Facebook, and everyone could network together. Who couldn't you network with? People not in college, high school students, people who had graduated. It was a very concentrated experience.

The problem with Google+ is that it's just so scattershot. I invited people I know, then they blocked invites. What's the common thing they all have together? They know me, and nothing else. There's no reason for them to come back to the site.

I never understood the "tablet influence". Gnome 3 seems to be very focused on using hot corners and maximizing the use of screen real estate. It's very keyboard/mouse oriented, and not touch friendly at all.

Personally, I've loved it. Gnome 3 gave me something different and interesting, and it made me actually come back to Linux after being a Windows 7 user for years.

I have a CR-48, and the really fast boot (8 seconds), instant sleep/resume, 6-8 hour battery and 3 second shutdown go a long way in making it incredibly useful. The machine has wifi and pay-as-you-go 3G access, and you get 100 MB free 3G a month should you need to check your email when there's no hotspot or something.

Google will have trouble marketing these with all the hype around tablets, but to be honest, it's been a lot more useful than my iPad since I can actually use it as a computer without carrying around my mammoth Thinkpad W500. It's not perfect for me (though it does have SSH!), but for my Mom's next laptop, I'm going to strongly recommend a Chromebook. It's all she needs, the price is right, and there's no spinning platters, security problems, or bloat to worry about.

A key feature of iOS 4.3 was significantly improved JavaScript performance by porting Nitro to iOS, Nitro is a part of Webkit. So yes, this specific iOS update did include a rather significant Webkit update, perhaps one of the most significant ones in recent memory, which makes it suspect.

The only tracking features Chrome makes use of is a ping to Google upon successful install (RLZ identifier, by way of Google Update, which is not installed with Chromium and a separate open source project) and the suggested results in the address bar, which can be disabled.

I'm all for people using whatever browser they want because it suits their needs, but I don't get the FUD against Chrome. It's utter bullshit and anti-Google paranoia when there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made.

Google is doing this with Native Client. It allows a browser to run code compiled for x86, ARM, or LLVM bytecode in a sandbox. It's currently in beta in Chrome 10 (you can enable and try it out by going to about:flags), and apparently available for other browsers as well under the BSD license.

I enjoyed Crysis. Accomplish these objectives within a relatively open sandbox, given these powers. It only became standard fare scifi bullshit during the alien mothership levels, but was otherwise pretty neat.

Crysis 2 sounds the same way, only with the multiplayer designed by Crytek UK - formerly Free Radical, the guys behind Timesplitters and Goldeneye 007.

I can vouch for this. Signature isn't exactly a vanilla install (Microsoft wants you to have the OEM drivers and some software) but it gives you no bullshit, Live Essentials, and Security Essentials, arguably the best AV program on Windows.

If you're suggesting a friend buy a laptop or, don't want to deal with PC Decrapifier, I highly recommend it.

Or you could just, you know, play it. The service lets you demo any game free for 30 minutes.

While it clearly isn't great at games that require a twitch response, using a game controller masks latency very well. You simply don't notice it too much when playing on a PC with a 360 controller or their Microconsole. Third person action games are completely playable. I was able to go through all of Assassin's Creed II on OnLive (they gave it to me for free for signing up) and honestly, I had a pretty great experience. The fact that I could play it anywhere without worrying about hardware requirements or my saved game, was pretty damn neat. Just Cause, Trine, and Darksiders have also given me solid impressions of OnLive.

That said, the latency is fine for controller-based shooters as well, especially the slow-paced ones they offer (Bioshock, Borderlands). But won't replace me playing Bad Company 2 and Quake Live with mouse and keyboard on a high end machine.

Because you're rendering at 720p-1080p on a PS3. When you're rendering at 320x240, you can pull off a lot of neat tricks without needing that much processing power. Aside from that, you have the blu-ray and hard drive taking up valuable space.

The PSP came out during the PS2's lifespan, and easily looked just as good.